Latin America
Related: About this forumU.S. anti-cocaine push embitters Peru chocolate makers
U.S. anti-cocaine push embitters Peru chocolate makers
By Caroline Stauffer
LIMA | Wed Apr 25, 2012 9:07pm BST
(Reuters) - Connoisseurs who take chocolate as seriously as sommeliers study wine are challenging the widespread use of an inferior cocoa pushed by the U.S. government in its war against drugs in Peru, considered by many to be the birthplace of cocoa.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, introduced the high-yielding but acidic tasting CCN-51 cocoa hybrid to Peru in 2002 to offer farmers an alternative to planting coca - the key ingredient in cocaine.
The program has had some success but chocolate makers are encouraging farmers to instead cultivate smaller amounts of rare, native cocoa that fetches higher prices from buyers who value complex and subtle flavors and judge chocolate by the personality of its cocoa, like the nose of a fine wine.
~snip~
USAID says it has a foreign policy mandate to curb coca production by encouraging alternative cash crops, not to cater to gourmets. But it also says it may be open to commercializing native varieties in the future and it is sponsoring a contest to encourage farmers to cultivate more native cocoa.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/25/us-peru-cocoa-idUKBRE83O19I20120425?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=lifestyleMolt&rpc=401
freshwest
(53,661 posts)The article is a bit odd, though. The USA does not have any kind of sovereignty over Peru, but some American corporations do business with Peruvian corporations.
It's just a matter of some money or contracts. We're talking about an international market for cocoa. It gets very prices, especially the raw cocao nibs.
What does Peru care about what USAID wants, or is this story a form of negotiation for more aid money?
It's just a matter of some money or contracts. We're talking about an international market for cocoa. It gets very prices, especially the raw cocao nibs.
RC
(25,592 posts)How best to do that than to act like it. If there is some push back, then there is always war to fall back on. Works in the Middle East.